Verity Venture Partners' Tina Bou-Saba: 'I'm not going to be constrained' by the current landscape

Tina Bou-Saba didn't anticipate becoming a dedicated beauty investor, but the path become clearer once she started investing in indie brands.

"A few years into investing as an individual, founders started telling me, 'Tina, you've been our best investor. Could you lead our next round?'" Bou-Saba said on the latest Glossy Beauty Podcast. Bou-Saba started her career in investment banking before transitioning to angel investing. As an angel investor, she was early to makeup brands like Kosas. "As a small individual investor, that was certainly not something that I could do, but it highlighted the opportunity for a specialist investor that could lead deals at the early stage and truly be a value-add," she said. In 2021, she co-founded Verity Venture Partners, a consumer-focused firm.

The firm's focus is on female-founded beauty and wellness brands, and its portfolio brands include August, Dae and Noto. Bou-Saba said, "Independent beauty has been an incredible vehicle for female entrepreneurship. For me personally, that was something I was excited to get behind." Bou-Saba's said that, as an early-stage investor, she has to push herself and brands to think of what comes next and where consumers and the beauty industry are headed. 

"What I found, which gives me confidence, is that I have developed an informed perspective on the needs of [beauty and wellness] companies. I see the same questions coming up again and again," said Bou-Saba.